The study's abstract says, among other things, ".. economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on

The study's abstract says, among other things, ".. economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence." Toward the end the study notes: "When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy." At the national level, US democracy is an illusion.